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Marines Paint Mural for City of Seattle

Cpl Brendon Mabb, production specialist, Combat Visual Information Center, Marine Corps Base Quantico, adds detail to the mural painting that will be showcased as part of Marine Week Seattle, here, July 24. For one week, July 26-August 3, 2014, hundreds of Marines will embark on the Emerald City to meet the men and women of Seattle, showcase equipment and aircraft, perform band concerts, and engage in community service events. Photo by Cpl Francisco Martinez.

SEATTLE (July 27, 2014) - Marine basic production specialists from Quantico, Camp Pendleton, and Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, came together from July 21st thru July 25th for Marine Week Seattle to create a mural that ties together the Marine Corps with the city of Seattle.

The Marines spent numerous hours painting, detailing, and scaling the mural to perfection. Despite harsh weather conditions the Marines persevered, using tarps to protect the painting and staying true to their saying "improvise, adapt, and overcome."

"Unfortunately it was pretty rainy while we were here down in Seattle for two of the days," said LCpl Elize Mckelvey, basic production specialist, Headquarters Battalion, Camp Pendleton. "We only had sun for the first and the last day so we had to work around that, which meant setting up tarps and working around the rain so it was kind of hectic."

After a long and challenging week the mural was unveiled in which Randy Engstrom, the Director of Seattle's Office of Arts and Cultural affairs gave praise to the Marine Corps and it's reproduction specialists.

"The role of artist in our culture has changed over time, but I'm pleased that the Marines, representing our country with distinction as exemplary leaders have been employing artist as part of their practice," said Engstrom.

Painted on the mural are the words community, country, and Corps. The three tie directly into what Marine Week is all about: helping the Marine Corps establish better relationships with different American communities.

"What makes Marine Week so important is it allows the community to see the Marine Corps, to get up close and personal with the Marine Corps and see what we're all about," said SSgt Randy Kirby, basic production specialist, Marine Corps Recruiting Command. "It allows us to get into the community, share our experiences, what we do, who we are, where we come from, and it allows us to basically be one with the community."

Marine Week Seattle is a celebration of community, country and Corps, and will officially take place July 26th thru August 3rd.

The Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS) is provided as a public service operated by Third Army/U.S. Army Central (ARCENT) on behalf of the Department of the Army in support of all branches of the U.S. military (Navy, Air Force, Marines) and its Coalition partners serving in the U.S. Forces Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility.